The Journey
My name is Holly Joy McCabe. The story of Zen finders is, in fact, my own personal story. To understand the vision, you’d need to understand how I got here. I’d like to share the shorter version of a long journey with you now.
I’ve always lived a pretty unconventional, rogue life. From leaving home at 16 to start the life I wanted, moving to Nashville at 18 and living in my truck to pursue music, to starting my first business at age 20 because I knew I wanted to create my own world, my life has been full of trials, success, adventure and excitement. I started a health and fitness business at age 23, and after working 24/7 to build my dreams of a successful company for 5 years plus starting several other brands, I found myself overworked, sick, exhausted, burnt out and hardly recognized myself. I had lost myself, and the person I had become prioritized business, work and clients above all else. I had started my businesses because I was passionate about helping people and changing their lives through health, but 5 years in and I had gotten a lot more than I bargained for. I missed the vibrant, adventurous, full of life and wanderlusting girl I used to be and wasn’t sure how to find her. I used to joke that I lived inside a 3-mile bubble from work, to my house to the grocery store and gym. After visiting numerous doctors over the course of a year, having every test done and every possible cause evaluated for why I wasn’t sleeping, couldn’t focus, had poor memory and felt agonizingly sick every day I was finally told the root of all of my issues was STRESS (While stress was indeed a huge factor, years later I did get to the root of my illnesses). I knew at that point my life depended on me creating time and experiences that invigorated me, rejuvenated me, and allowed my mind, body and soul to REST. I started what I then called “operation find my zen” and hashtagging these experiences #findmyzen. I started with simple things, like a trip to the lake to read for 30 mins, reading amazing books, getting a massage, fostering spiritual practices and so on. After two years, while I felt better, more connected to myself and my health had improved I still had this inner longing like there was “something else”. My soul felt restless, and my body still felt discontented. My work had not let up, and I was still working way more than my relaxation habits were able to recuperate me from. After a devastating breakup that shook my whole world, I knew it was going to take something more than a spa trip to relieve my pain and restlessness. I was so burdened with my everyday life, my surroundings, my responsibilities I knew the absolute only way to get relief was to get away from it all, if only for a day. Prior to that I had barely left my city for a few short days over the course of years, as I felt I “couldn’t” leave my responsibilities. Now there wasn’t a choice, I had to get away.
I asked a friend to take a short trip with me a few hrs away to Gatlinburg of all places, and it was in climbing a mountain there that for the first time in what felt like an eternity I felt LIGHT and the pain of heartbreak and overwhelm eased. I made a Facebook post with a mountain top selfie that said “Go climb a mountain, your problems will seem so small” and it felt like that’s what happened on that little one day trip to the Smokies. A month after that I booked a skydiving trip to face my biggest fear and liberate myself from anything that was weighing me down. A month later a longer trip to Atlanta, this time for 2 days instead of one. The same feelings and healing kept happening. Next, a trip booked to Aspen and for the next 10 months I had been on 10 trips, visited 12 states, and ended the year on a 9 day trip to Europe touring Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. Each time I stepped on a plane, something powerful happened. It wasn’t that I was running from the problem, ignoring the pain, or achieving some sort of “tuned out from my problems” state it was that in expanding my world and experience I was expanding MYSELF. In expanding myself, the stress, sickness, heartbreak or overwhelm wasn’t so all-consuming anymore. My creativity sparked, my body healed, and my heart transformed in ways it is hard to communicate. I meditated, I journaled, I prayed, I did so many powerful things during these trips and found parts of myself I had forgotten even existed. Travel was my sanctity, and literally saved my life.
In May of 2017, I made another trip to Italy to attend a business retreat and do more exploring. My travels had lead me to feel restless and unhappy in my business because I was so tied down to a brick and mortar location (I owned a gym by this time). I knew I wanted something that allowed me the freedom to explore, yet I also knew helping people be healthy in mind, body and spirit was my truest purpose. I made the trip exclusively because I had an intuitive knowing that I would get clarity on my next career move on this trip. I assumed it would happen through the business function full of entrepreneurs and visionaries, but instead it happened the very day I landed in Roma. I was sitting on the patio at this breathtaking wellness center having an amazing cup of Italian coffee. Despite the extreme jet lag and motion sickness I was in heaven. I was thinking about how much travel had expanded my whole world in the past year. I thought to myself, “if every woman could experience this type of liberating solo travel and see how amazing and beautiful this world is half the things that plague her would dissolve right out of her life”. It was in that moment I knew that I wanted to create a company that did just that. Not a typical touristy travel company but something that allowed the freedom to really explore and experience things in a uniquely individual way. As someone who isn’t fond of what the masses do, all of my travels had me exploring in off the beaten path types of ways. Getting to know the locals, learning and seeing things in a far different way than some guided tour would allow. I wanted to recreate all of my experiences and adventures for other women to share. I wanted women to find their life-changing zen-like I had been doing and thus Zen Finders was born.
The final aspect of the vision and mission took several more months to come into play. I knew I wanted to create something very unique and unlike any other boring travel excursion but felt there was something else missing beyond that. Over the months of developing the brand and logistics, I was drawn to numerous charity organizations and issues in other countries and even in the US. I’d always been one who loved giving back to communities and helping those in need, and considers this a vital and transformative practice for ourselves and the world. It had never occurred to me to consider there would be a way to tie fun, luxurious and adventurous travel with giving back and helping those in need. I realized more than anything that in order to be truly different, we had to make an impact not only in the lives of those traveling with Zen Finders, but find a way to leave each place we visited better off than we found it. The charitable aspect of Zen Finders was the final piece to create the perfect mission. Change your life, invigorate your mind, body and soul, challenge yourself, reconnect with yourself…all while giving back and bettering those around you.
This is the vision and mission that is Zen Finders and it is my sincere hope that the story inspires you to step up and join us in something that is truly life-changing.